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Exercise Fights Fatty Liver
by Joseph Mercola, D.O.
Dr. Joseph Mercola
of Mercola.com
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is the most common form of chronic liver disease. It is associated with obesity, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes and is characterized by elevated liver enzymes.
A new study suggests that counseling patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease on how to increase physical activity leads to health benefits that are independent of changes in weight. Currently, patients with this disease are encouraged to alter their lifestyles, but the focus has been on weight loss through dietary changes. But when patients were encouraged to be active for at least 150 minutes per week, they showed improvements in liver enzymes and other metabolic indices, which were not connected to weight loss.
A common side-effect of the obesity epidemic
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is associated with metabolic syndrome, a group of symptoms including diabetes, pre-diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol that increases the risk of heart disease and has also been on the rise.
As its name suggests, fatty liver disease describes the accumulation of fat in your liver. Often there are no symptoms, although it may cause fatigue or pain in your upper right abdomen. The fat accumulations may also lead to inflammation and scarring in your liver, and in the most serious cases may progress to liver failure.
This new study shows exercise is incredibly important in fighting fatty liver, regardless of whether or not you lose weight. In fact, just exercising for more than 150 minutes per week for three months, or increasing fitness levels, was enough for participants to show improvements in fatty liver disease.
What type of exercise is best?
The take-home message to remember is that virtually any exercise is better than no exercise at all. It’s widely known that people who don’t exercise build dangerous visceral fat—the type that shows up in your abdomen and surrounds your vital organs including your liver, heart and muscles— much more quickly than those who do.
So no matter what you do, make sure you get moving. The study used walking as the main type of activity, and this is a fine choice for those of you just starting out. Ultimately, however, you’ll want to vary your workout while increasing its intensity, because if you do the same exercise day-in and day-out your body will adapt to it… and when exercise becomes easy to complete, it’s a sign you need to work a little harder and give your body a new challenge.
When you’re planning your exercise routine, make sure it incorporates the following types of exercise:
- Aerobic: Jogging, using an elliptical machine, and walking fast are all examples of aerobic exercise. Aerobic exercise activates your immune system, helps your heart pump blood more efficiently, and increases your stamina over time.
- Interval (Anaerobic) Training: Research is showing that the BEST way to condition your heart and burn fat is NOT to jog or walk steadily for an hour. Instead, it’s to alternate short bursts of high-intensity exercise with gentle recovery periods. This type of exercise, known as interval training or burst type training, can dramatically improve your cardiovascular fitness and fat-burning capabilities.
- Strength Training: Rounding out your exercise program with a 1-set strength training routine will ensure that you’re really optimizing the possible health benefits of a regular exercise program.
- Core Exercises: Your body has 29 core muscles located mostly in your back, abdomen and pelvis. This group of muscles provides the foundation for movement throughout your entire body, and strengthening them can help protect and support your back, make your spine and body less prone to injury, and help you gain greater balance and stability.
